September 27 - 29, 2019

Kenneth Kousen

President, Kousen IT, Inc.

Ken Kousen is a Java Champion, Oracle Groundbreaker Ambassador, and a Grails Rock Star. He is the author of the O'Reilly books “Modern Java Recipes” and “Gradle Recipes for Android” and the Manning book “Making Java Groovy”. He also has recorded over a dozen video courses for the O'Reilly Learning Platform, covering topics related to Android, Spring, Java, Groovy, Grails, and Gradle.

In 2013, 2016, and 2017 he won a JavaOne Rockstar award. His academic background include BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from M.I.T., an MA and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and an MS in Computer Science from R.P.I. He is currently President of Kousen IT, Inc., based in Connecticut.

Presentations

PODCASTS

Kotlin is an exciting new language for the JVM from the folks at Jetbrains. Kotlin has been making waves for a couple years now in the Android space but, as a general purpose language, it is finding it's way into many projects and developers seem to love it!

For those of us who haven't been hands-on yet, Ken gives us an overview of the language, it's features, and why it's worth getting excited about!

We're joined with Ken Kousen to discuss the current state of Groovy, Grails3 and why those technologies are well worth exploring.

The time for Groovy is now. It makes your life easier and quicker. Anything you do in Java you can simplify by a good factor of five-maybe 10-and still have code that's easy to write, easy to follow and easy to maintain.

BOOKS

The introduction of functional programming concepts in Java SE 8 was a drastic change for this venerable object-oriented language. Lambda expressions, method references, and streams fundamentally changed the idioms of the language, and many developers have been trying to catch up ever since. This cookbook will help. With more than 70 detailed recipes, author Ken Kousen shows you how to use the newest features of Java to solve a wide range of problems.

For developers comfortable with previous Java versions, this guide covers nearly all of Java SE 8, and includes a chapter focused on changes coming in Java 9. Need to understand how functional idioms will change the way you write code? This cookbook—chock full of use cases—is for you.

Using the Android Studio IDE and the Gradle build tool will make Android app development much simpler—as long as you know your way around Gradle. This practical guide shows you how Gradle works with Android so that you can use it effectively on your projects. You’ll learn ways to customize project layouts, add dependencies, and even generate multiple different versions of your application.

Use Gradle independently and from with the new preferred IDE, Android Studio

Integrate tests into standard Android project builds

Easily customize builds to add popular third-party libraries as dependencies

Generate artifacts with various properties, like debug or release, and different flavors, like paid or free

Making Java Groovy is a practical handbook for developers who want to blend Groovy into their day-to-day work with Java. It starts by introducing the key differences between Java and Groovy—and how you can use them to your advantage. Then, it guides you step-by-step through realistic development challenges, from web applications to web services to desktop applications, and shows how Groovy makes them easier to put into production.

About this Book

You don't need the full force of Java when you're writing a build script, a simple system utility, or a lightweight web app—but that's where Groovy shines brightest. This elegant JVM-based dynamic language extends and simplifies Java so you can concentrate on the task at hand instead of managing minute details and unnecessary complexity.

Making Java Groov is a practical guide for developers who want to benefit from Groovy in their work with Java. It starts by introducing the key differences between Java and Groovy and how to use them to your advantage. Then, you'll focus on the situations you face every day, like consuming and creating RESTful web services, working with databases, and using the Spring framework. You'll also explore the great Groovy tools for build processes, testing, and deployment and learn how to write Groovy-based domain-specific languages that simplify Java development.

Written for developers familiar with Java. No Groovy experience required.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

What's Inside

Easier Java

Closures, builders, and metaprogramming

Gradle for builds, Spock for testing

Groovy frameworks like Grails and Griffon

About the Author

Ken Kousen is an independent consultant and trainer specializing in Spring, Hibernate, Groovy, and Grails.

Table of Contents

PART 1: UP TO SPEED WITH GROOVY

Why add Groovy to Java?

Groovy by example

Code-level integration

Using Groovy features in Java

PART 2: GROOVY TOOLS

Build processes

Testing Groovy and Java projects

PART 3: GROOVY IN THE REAL WORLD

Number of Videos: 4 hours - 23 lessonsAuthor: Ken KousenUser Level: Beginner Learn the advantages of using Groovy by itself and with existing Java projects. This video workshop takes you into the heart of this JVM language and shows you how Groovy can help increase your productivity through dynamic language features similar to those of Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk. Presenter and Java consultant Ken Kousen demonstrates how writing anything from a simple build script to a full scale application is much easier with Groovy than with Java. You’ll quickly learn how to add Groovy to your projects, and then explore the language through a host of examples and demonstrations. Once you complete this course, check out Ken’s other videos on the subject: Practical Groovy and Mastering Groovy. - Walk through Groovy’s basic data types. Use the “slashy” string syntax to define regular expressions. - Learn how operator overloading in the libraries simplifies your code - Control and customize all the natural defaults and autogenerated code in POGOs - Get demonstrations on using closures, and mixing Java and Groovy classes together - Know when and how to use Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) transformations - Parse and generate both XML and JSON - Access RESTful web services with ease Ken Kousen, President of Kousen IT, Inc., is a technical trainer, mentor, and consultant in all areas related to Java, specializing in Android, Spring, Hibernate/JPA, Groovy, and Grails. He is the author of Making Java Groovy (Manning) and the upcoming O’Reilly book, Gradle for Android.